Mario Manieri Elia, renowned historian of Italian architecture, described the image of the Pantheon—resulting from the union of the marble front of a Greek temple and the concrete vaulted cylinder of Etrusco-Roman origin—as an embodiment of the idea of the Roman State, founded on the union between Greek culture and Roman technique. At least from this moment onward, architecture could no longer be reduced to a purely constructive problem: the design of spatial forms became a medium through which the values of collective life are communicated. It is also for this reason that the Pantheon stands among the most famous architecture in the world—an icon represented and narrated in its autonomous condition as an isolated monument.
New works, recently completed, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Culture, and carried out to a design by STARTT, now opens to the public the archaeological area behind the celebrated Rotunda, making accessible spaces that had previously been reserved for technical functions.
Through a new visitor route, the project by STARTT makes the former role of the Pantheon perceivable to the visitor: the monument was the head of a longitudinal urban system extending across the city block up to what is now Largo Argentina —prior to the demolitions undertaken during the Kingdom of Italy, which isolated the monument with the specific purpose of transforming it into the mausoleum of King Vittorio Emanuele II.
The Pantheon as we see it today may therefore be considered as a modern invention, whereas the Augustan Pantheon was the union of three elements: the Greek pronaos, the Rotunda, and the city behind it with its institutions. Immediately behind the Pantheon stood the Basilica of Neptune, whose remains were brought to light precisely during these works of isolation.
The spaces now accessible to the public are defined by the buttresses that connect the Rotunda to the ruins of the Basilica. They host the chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria ad Martyres, which preserves the earliest Byzantine icon in Rome, as well as fragments of the architectural fabric from the various historical phases of the Pantheon and remains of the Basilica of the god of the sea. The new visitor route enhances the Roman spatiality compressed between the cylinder of the Rotunda and that of Neptune’s apse, and articulated by the structural rhythm of the buttresses.
STARTT’s project operates on this space between two contrasting curves through measured interventions that are thought to be respectful of the ancient materiality. The project is composed of minimal elements—micro-architectures—clearly recognizable by difference: the character of the space emerges from the relationship between steel plates, treated according to contemporary production processes, and the brickwork and concrete of ancient Rome. Among the new elements, an elevator conceived as a sculptural monolith provides access to the upper level of these spaces, where the Ministry of Culture, under the direction of Luca Mercuri, has realized a multimedia set-up devoted to the history of the monument.
STARTT’s approach to adaptive reuse defines an inclusive route that is accessible to all users while remaining non-invasive across the site, positioning the project as an intervention of contemporary architecture in service of archaeology.
